A site dedicated to Abby. You can get updates on her diagnosis and treatment and leave comments for Abby and her mom and dad.

Tuesday, September 13, 2011

Fantastic News

The last few weeks have been hard. The new seizures, adjusting to the medicine, and anticipating the MRI really took its toll on us. It's hard to explain: we weren't sad or angry or hopeless, but it was like a cloud was hanging over us or an extra weight was on our shoulders. I had to constantly remind myself that God was faithful and just, and that He would take care of us. It takes a lot of work to keep your faith meter full. I prayed and studied and leaned on my church family and on Jason for support.

But today God parted the clouds and lifted the weight. He reminded me why I can trust Him and why I should never doubt Him to begin with.

Her scans were stable. There was no change in the tumor. In fact, the radiologist looked over all her scans and can't find any changes ever. That's right. It doesn't look any different then it did in November 2009. The same radiologist who wrote in his report "definite change to the size of the tumor" three months ago looked at that same scan and said "I don't see what I saw last time".

Isn't it amazing? Isn't it wonderful?

I have no explanation. I can't wrap my brain around it. My first thought was "prayer works" and I thought of all the people who have been praying so hard for her and I was so grateful that people care enough to do that. And then I thought, "God is unbelievably amazing!"

I don't understand it. But I am grateful. So very, very grateful. And I feel that He has something so big and great for her and I wonder what it could be. And I feel so glad that He chose me to be her mama. She is an incredibly brave little girl (who happens to be beautiful too).

Thank you from the bottom of our hearts for praying for her. It makes a difference!

Abby Summer 2010

How We Got to Here-Updated August 2010

It all started with very small seizures. We are not sure how long she had been having them but they were getting more frequent. On April 23, 2009, we took her to Dr. Baker who sent us to the ER at Arkansas Children's Hospital. An MRI revealed a large brain lesion and Abby was taken to the ICU for 3 days. She moved out of the ICU and spent a total of 8 days at Children's. We saw several doctors who were all pretty stumped by what they saw. It didn't look like anything-tumor, infection, swelling. They put her on an anti-viral medication in case it was infection. Another MRI showed no changes. Some doctors thought it was gliomatosis cerebri but some didn't agree with that diagnosis so they decided to take some spinal fluid to analyze. They had to take it from the brain though because of possible swelling. We spent another night in ICU.

After she was discharged we contacted MD Anderson in Houston and St. Jude's. We flew to Houston where another MRI was performed. They informed us that it was gliomatosis cerebri. St. Jude's called later that day and informed us that they felt it was gliomatosis cerebri. That was not what we wanted to hear-gliomatosis cerebri has a 5% survival rate. However, St. Jude's neurosurgeon, Dr. Boop, wanted to try to remove some of the tumor. This allowed for a biopsy of multiple pieces of the tumor. On May 22, 2009, Abby underwent brain surgery. Almost all of her right temporal lobe was removed. Abby had to spend another night in ICU, this time at LeBonheur in Memphis.

The biopsy results surprised us all, it was not gliomatosis cerebri, it was a low grade glioma! God had answered everyone's prayers! The plan was to begin chemotherapy to stop the tumor from growing but our neuro oncologist, Dr. Armstrong, wanted to wait a few weeks to see how this tumor was going to act. We were once again surprised-the tumor wasn't growing. No need for treatment!! And that is where we are today. It has been over a year, and the tumor still has not grown. It's still there, big and nasty, but it is quiet right now. We go to St. Jude's every 3 months for an MRI and other appointments to monitor the tumor.